Today we bring you two absolutely incredible stories. The first is Lockheed’s legendary Skunk Works division - the elite team of aviation geniuses who produced some of the greatest airplanes in history: the U-2, the Stealth Fighter, and the incomparable SR-71 Blackbird. The second story is arguably even more important, but not widely known! It's the secret and true origins of Silicon Valley - and Lockheed’s primary role in it. We take you from WWII to the Cold War, all the way to today to unpack and analyze the industry dynamics of defense contractors in the modern era. Tune in and prepare to be blown away by what you’ll learn about the history of our industry!
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Links:
Ben Rich’s Skunk Works
www.amazon.com/Skunk-Works-Pe...
Kelly’s 14 Rules of Skunk Works
www.lockheedmartin.com/conten...
LMSC’s “Seven Tenets”
• Lockheed's Reconnaissa...
Steve Blank’s Secret History of Silicon Valley
steveblank.com/secret-history/
Episode sources:
docs.google.com/document/d/15...
Carve Outs:
Nier: Automata
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nier:_A...
The Blackbird speed check story
www.thesr71blackbird.com/Airc...
EGO Lawn Tools (just in time for Fathers’ Day!)
egopowerplus.com/power-blower...
Note: Acquired hosts and guests may hold assets discussed in this episode. This podcast is not investment advice, and is intended for informational and entertainment purposes only. You should do your own research and make your own independent decisions when considering any financial transactions.
I interviewed at Lockheed and big tech. My offer at big tech was 2-3x Lockheed, at a much better location, and with much better atmosphere. Based on my interviews of people there (including one at Skunkworks), it's 100% bureaucracy. Lockheed is a nationalized company by all measures.
Gentlemen, I love the episode. One minor correction, the U2 is still in use. It has not been decommissioned as a program yet.
The tooling to cut titanium is not made out of titanium. Carbide is the least expensive per tool, but long term industrial diamond is cheaper per part. I'm certain it was just a faux pas, as these guys have some machining experience or so it sounds.
Also, Gary Powers was a CIA pilot ordered to kill himself with a poison pill is shot down and failed, so the idea he might have died was even more likely than just from the altitude.
The U2 works great if not defended by high altitude air defense missile.
Man, this episode was awesome. Aircraft like the SR-71 and F-117 inspired me to pursue engineering and it still wows me today (and makes me feel like I'll never be a 'real engineer') that these aircraft were designed primarily on pen and paper. You guys struck a great balance of being wowed by the technology while still talking about the struggle of mentally processing both the importance and the far-reaching impacts of the military industrial complex. I worked in defense for ~2.5 years and felt first hand what it feels like to be part of the "engineering reserve corps" and being frustrated with the velocity of the industry. I've spent time working at Amazon, and it's interesting to see the parallels between the 14 Rules & 7 Tenets and Amazon's 16 Leadership principles. Knowing that Bezos' dad might have had exposure to those rules and tenets is an interesting connection that I never made before. Anyways - kudos on the awesome pod!
Came across this segment randomly when I wasn't paying attention to youtube, and became completely captivated. I can tell that you're both good writers and that you know a lot of cool stuff just by listening to this episode. Subscribed and can't wait to listen to more of your stuff.
Loved this episode. Thank you
Feels kinda strange to hear the era I grew up in, told to me by young folks. I grew up in the 50’s about 15 minutes from Lockheed and the Skunk Works … most of the Aviation world was in So Cal and aerospace industry was ‘The Valley’.
Thank you for the episode!
❤❤توبوا إلى الله لأن بالصلاح والاسلام تحيا النفوس والقلوب repent to Allah in Islam because by Islam live the hearts and souls
Amazing episode! I was not expecting to like this as much as I did once I saw the theme but now I'm left with the feeling that 3:30h wasn't even enough! Would love to see a follow up episode with Palmer Luckey (Maybe for the 2nd channel?). Thanks, guys! Absolute prime content!
❤❤توبوا إلى الله لأن بالصلاح والاسلام تحيا النفوس والقلوب repent to Allah in Islam because by Islam live the hearts and souls
I thought I knew something of aviation, then I thought I knew something about insulating houses, then I thought… you’re having a terrific good podcast about how to build a small idea into a worldwide accepted concept. What a revelation to hear you two speak about history of aviation since the development of the jet engine.
It was Nixon, not Johnson, I remember, for the S/R R/S gaff.
I’m watching this while listening to the jets from Miramar fly overhead. I always cringe that they’ll crash into my house like in 2007 when a house in my neighborhood was obliterated by one.
Great episode! A serious comment however. Spoiler Alert - this is about the Maverick movie which is awesome. If you haven't seen it yet, seriously don't read this now. The story starting with the project being shut down due to failing to meet the targets is exactly the opposite of reality. LM won the JSF competition with the F35 but then continuously failed to meet the needed speed, weight, payload targets. Instead of being shut down, as in the movie, they successfully got the targets reduced, repeatedly. This is a major part of the reason everyone from the Joint Chiefs to the leaders of other countries have have repeatedly talked about cancelling the whole thing. It's an example of really smart dishonest messaging designed to create a false but firm impression that things are being done the hard but fair way.
The U.S. space program was actually ahead of the Soviet Union’s space program, but was held back, so the legal issues of satellites passing over nations was addressed with the Soviet Union’s Sputnik. The U.S. didn’t object and the Soviets were not able to complain about the U.S. Explorer satellite, so the Corona and following satellites got a “free pass” in the legal issue of overflying nations in Space. Games inside games. I wonder what games are still classified? => Hubble only used by NASA? Not quite. Open budget item was the transfer of two Hubble bodies, no sensors, no control systems were declared surplus by CIA and transferred to NASA. This occurred the year after NASA had the design for the replacement for Hubble (in the visual spectrum). There must be some reason the U.S. wants its enemies to know certain things. Wonder what they can see now, from space? => There was a threat based need for the SR-71. What if the Soviet/US war went hot, when we needed fast planes? Same for the F-35 and Aurora today. Just because our prayers for not needing weapons were granted doesn’t mean they were not wise to obtain.
Can u fight bomber planes vs bomber planes
You guys missed the greatest story of all, Alfred Loomis!!!!
Brother worked for Lockheed Martin, then I got to work for them, and i love working for Lockheed Martin. The reason why is that I want to be that 1% responsible for every lethal machines we have created against our enemy. Im a programmer and got to go on a business trip to deal with classified information.
❤❤توبوا إلى الله لأن بالصلاح والاسلام تحيا النفوس والقلوب repent to Allah in Islam because by Islam live the hearts and souls
Great work you're doing Dr. Dyson.
Hello what is your learning path to be able tom work at Lockheed Martin?
Absolutely, no confusion or being conflicted. Having Overwhelming devastating on your side, is what keeps the world peaceful. At 18 in 1967, I didn’t understand but w/o a doubt, Peace through Strength is Real and it’s extremely effective. When does the world go to poop, when the US has a weak Democrat President… See Carter, Clinton, Obama and Biden vs Eisenhower Reagan, Trump and even the Bush’s to some degree…
Don’t forget to blame California…….🤔💕
CA was Great in the 50’s through the late 80’s and then the gangs and later the Socialists took over.
I blame California
Tesla/Spacex/Neurralink is the new skunkworks.
They keep saying "Lockheed has only one customer: the United States DoD". Yet they acknowledge the F-35 is procured by many different countries all over the world. 😂
The US has to approve all those purchases though. If they don't want them to sell to other people, I think the US has to pass something, and probably pay them a bunch of cash, then they can't sell that product elsewhere.
So any sketchy place you hear of stuff going, our government had to say nah, that's cool. 😆
@@Ryan.G.Spalding interesting! Thanks for the info. Nevertheless, Lockheed Martin has more than one customer. The UK purchased 138 F-35s, japan purchased 147, Australia committed to 100, etc. These customers are not the United States.
@@streamust9068 We sell everything to the U.S. government. Then the government sells those items to other countries. (I'm an engineer at Lockheed)
@@matts9728 that's not true. Defence OEMs also sell directly to goverments.
Buy $LMI Lockheed Martin Inu to the moon!
❤❤توبوا إلى الله لأن بالصلاح والاسلام تحيا النفوس والقلوب repent to Allah in Islam because by Islam live the hearts and souls
Lokhet qua tai ve san xuat
❤❤توبوا إلى الله لأن بالصلاح والاسلام تحيا النفوس والقلوب repent to Allah in Islam because by Islam live the hearts and souls
The U-2's camera was specially designed by James G. Baker of Harvard and Richard Scott Perkin of the Perkin-Elmer Company, initially in collaboration and later separately, Not Polaroid, Not James Land of the Polaroid Company, You should research facts of History, Many Details You You Cited are Grossly Inaccurate and False, Do Better...
They are completely wrong about machining titanium as well.
With all Respect Due to them, I worked as a Private Contractor for Lockheed Martin in the mid Nineties, while listening to this Video I had So many instances of Shaking my head every time they Spoke False Information I started to get a Headache, lol, I have to question their methods of Research and Comprehension of what they Read, it's almost like they were making up things along the way, Some Bloggers and Content Creators are only in it For Clicks and Views irrespective of Facts or Actual History, at the end of the day it is sad. In short, I fully agree with you. Lol
❤❤توبوا إلى الله لأن بالصلاح والاسلام تحيا النفوس والقلوب repent to Allah in Islam because by Islam live the hearts and souls